Dear Editor,
According to Highwood MLA RJ Sigurdson, balancing the budget is what is most important for a provincial government. He said exactly that at his last town hall.
We also know from a recent letter to the editor, and from Sigurdson, that any current budget woes are the fault of the NDP government that has been gone for half a decade.
Since conservative Albertans cannot seem to get over the only non-conservative government in Alberta’s history, I have a genuine question: What would you have cut to balance the budget? It’s not an easy task.
Let’s say the NDP kept spending flat from the last PC government. That alone means cutting costs when you consider inflation and population growth. In 2016, you’d still have to cut another 12 per cent across the board to balance the budget.
Despite those cuts, you’d need to cut another $400 million from the budget in 2017. By 2018 and 2019, you can finally increase spending, but even then, spending is still flat from four years ago while inflation and population have both increased.
What will you cut? Half of the entire education budget, or 40 per cent of the health budget? Since most of those cuts are labour, once the economy bounces back, how do you hire them back?
Economies ebb and flow, especially when they are based on commodities. The UCP isn’t any better at balancing a budget than the NDP. Conservatives ran deficits 12 times in the last 15 years. The only time they balanced the budget was when oil was over CAD $91/bbl. And even then, they failed to balance the budget four times.
To put that in perspective, when the NDP ran government, the price of oil averaged CAD $68.
Before you criticize the NDP or praise the almighty Marlaina and David Parker for their fiscal savvy, learn to read a profit and loss statement and do a little research.
Jason Lampi
Okotoks
